Until It's Gone
by WorthyPurpleCrayon
Summary: You never realize how much you love something until it's gone. Auslly, angst, oneshot


_You never know how much you love something until it's gone. _

oOo

"Hey Austin!" Ally called out to her blonde-haired companion. She was in her dad's shop, working the counter as she always does at this time. However, she finds her job very boring so she had been staring at the door in the empty shop waiting for Austin to walk in, like he does every day. It was like tradition for them. Austin walks in, saves Ally from sure death of boredom, they write a new song. Today though, today was different.

Instead of the cheeky smile and happy _Hi Alls!_ she usually recieves upon his entrance, she found a mumbled greeting before he walked over to the bench in the corner and curled up on it. Within a few moments, she heard light snores and knew her best friend had fallen asleep.

This was very unusual for the boy. He was always full of life and energy, especially when he came in for his daily visit. That's what their partnership-and friendship-had been based off of, had it not? Him being energetic and slightly rebelious, her being reserved and cautious?

Deciding that the store could manage itself for a couple moments, the brunette left her place from behind the counter and quietly tip-toed over to the sleeping blonde. She hadn't wanted to wake him up, but also knew her strange stepping had to do with the fact of her being scared. She almost felt that if she woke the boy, this new side of him would attack her.

She lightly nudged on his shoulder, wanting to wake him, but scared to. When she realized that even though he was acting weird, he was still her Austin, she pushed a little harder on his shoulder. That in turn resulted to the boy falling off the bench and onto the carpeted floor. He swore under his breath-making Ally gasp-before stumbling to his feet.

"What Ally?" He asked her, slightly slurring. There was a tone of annoyance in his voice. It made her cringe. Where had her good-natured friend gone?

"I, I just w, wanted to check on you." The girl stuttered out. The boy groaned and shook his head before curling back up on his beloved bench. Ally sighed and walked back over to the counter. He obviously didn't want to be near her, given the scene that had just happened.

Ally was slightly disturbed by her friend's behavior. He was always so happy, so energetic, so friendly. She had never seen this side of him. Honestly, she preferred the other side much more than this monster.

In her process of thinking, she heard a groan come from the lump on the bench. She shifted her gaze over to the boy, who was now trying to get to his feet. He stumbled a little before finally gaining a slight bit of balance. Without another word, he walked out of the sore, slightly swaying.

Ally felt another sigh escape her lips. This boy was making her whole day go sour, even though it was supposed to be a fun day, filled with things like getting ice cream with Austin, going to the beach with Austin, and writing a song with Austin.

She decided that since there were no customers in the shop, and there seemingly wouldn't be for a couple more hours, she would close down the shop and work on the boy's song in the practice room. She shut the doors, flipped the open sign to the side that read closed, and marched up the stairs with many ideas already floating through her head.

oOo

"What happened to the you I used to know?" Ally sung, pressing out chords on the piano. "Where is the guy you used to show? Cause he was so much better than this."

She smiled in satisfaction, proud of the lyrics. She flipped open her book to a new, clean page and picked up the pencil laying on top of the piano. She scribbled down the words she just sung, making notations here and there about chords.

In the midst of her writing, she heard banging from downstairs followed by a thud. After a groan and a moment of silence, the banging continued. Aly lifted her head ever so slightly to focus on the noises, seeing if they would stop. When they continued, she stood up from the bench and walked over to the closet in the corner of the practice room.

After opening the door and selecting the baseball bat she kept in there, she left the room, walking slowly down the stairs, not even taking the time to look who was behind the door. When she reached the bottom of the steps she finally took a look at the perpetrator. Austin.

Sighing in relief, she tossed the baseball bat lightly to the the side and opened the door for the boy. She could immediately tell from the way he stood slumped to the side that he wasn't back to normal yet. She felt her good mood deflate from her body.

"Hey, pretty girl." Austin slurred out. That's when she noticed the bottle in his hand. Not just any old bottle, but a half-emptied bottle clearly marked with the name Budweiser. Austin had been drinking.

Suddenly, everything made sense. It was as if the last piece of the puzzle had been layed down and now you could see the whole picture. The stumbling, the sleepiness, the "pretty girl", the bad mood, all because he was drunk.

Without another thought, she swiped the bottle from his hand. She didn't want her friend to drink, at least not until he was of age. And he was _definately_ not of age. "Austin, how could you! Alchohol is so bad for you! Don't you know the effects this stuff has on you? If you keep drinking, you could die from this! Not to mention the fact that you are only seventeen! That makes your little drinking thing illegal, but no. You had to go drink anyway. Austin, I am so dissapointed in you." She scolded, resulting with a groan from the boy. Even while drunk he didn't want to listen to her rambles.

"Gorgeous, stop talking." The boy said, slipping an arm around her waist. She didn't pull in to the boy, as she usually did though. She was too annoyed for that. So, she stood her ground as he wrapped another arm around her waist.

"Austin, I want you to go lay down on the couch in the practice room until you sleep this off. Understand?" Ally commanded. This resulted in a hiccup and laugh from the boy.

"Why are you so uptight? Can't you just let go with me?" The boy asked. She shook her head and wiggled an arm free from his grasp so she could point up to the practice room. He just pulled her in closer by the waist.

Suddenly, she felt his hands drop a little lower until they finally rested on a place they shouldn't. She tried to get free, but Austin was too strong for her.

"Austin, let go of me!" Ally yelled. That only made him hold her a little tighter. He was resolved not to let the "pretty girl" go, even though she was acting like his mother.

"Nuh-uh. Not until you let loose with me," He stuttered. She gasped and shook her head. He just smirked at her, and went in to kiss her neck. She dropped the bottle and despite her inner-protests, moaned in pleasure. "There you go."

Just as he had started kissing his way up her jaw, she felt him slump and heard light snores escape his lips. He had fallen asleep, right there, right now? She felt her annoyance increase.

She stepped out of the boys grasp and let him fall to the floor. She picked up the bottle and threw it out before cleaning up any of the drink that had spilled out. Leaving the boy there, she walked into the practice room, locking the door behind her. And after a couple hours spent crying, she was finally lulled to sleep.

oOo

A month had passed by and Austin was drinking even more. Daily, he would come into the store drunk and slurring for his "pretty girl". Quite frankly, he was starting to scare the brunette. Especially because he could not remember anything that he had done the next morning.

Whenever he was drunk, he would always try to make advances on her. Whenever she had tried to resist, he would only try harder. Eventually she would just give up and let him do whatever it is he was trying to do in the first place. Whether it be kissing her, hugging her, trying to amuse her. One night though, he took things to far.

He had come in to the Sonic Boom drunk again, making her good day go to waste. As soon as he set eyes on her, a large grin overtook his face and he started wobbling over to where she stood behind the counter.

"Hi Gorgeous." He mumbled, already leaning in to kiss her neck. She cringed back, not liking the strong smell of alchohol radiating off of the boy. The cringe seemed to anger him, though, as he stood straight and growled at her.

"Why are you backing away from me, Gorgeous?" He snapped. His words were full of venom, and there was a scowl on his face. She cringed back again. She had never seen his face so mean looking before, or words sounding so hateful before.

"You, you, uh, smell like, um, beer." She said, taking another step back. She was really scared. She didn't like this side of him, it really scared her. And she thought he was scary before this...

"Well, what do you think I'd smell like?" He asked, raising his hand and slapping her across her face. She cried out in pain, sinking to the floor. He had never hurt her before, not like this at least. He reached down and slapped her again, leaving a red hand print on her cheek. She cried out again. "Stop crying you baby!"

He continued to beat her until he finally passed out, leaving a thud on the floor and a crying Ally. For the first time, she realized that she really missed Austin. Not this Austin, always drunk and hurting her, but the old Austin. Her friend, Austin.

oOo

It was dark and gloomy out, lightly raining. It was the first bad weather Miami had had in awhile, and it made Ally a little upset. She liked the sunny weather Miami usually had, it made her sunny and cheery. Or at least, used to make her sunny and cheery, until drunk Austin came around.

She was laying in her bed, staring up at her ceiling, thinking of the past month. It had been pure torture for her, with Austin always groping her up or hurting her. The worst part was that she started to think she liked him. Like, _liked_ him. Even though she didn't want him always on her, and definately not slapping her, she still managed to acquire feelings for him. Yet, he never seemed to remember his actions from the night before.

That's when her phone started to buzz. She groaned and leaned over to check it. It was an incoming call from a number she didn't know. She was going to just let it ring out for the answering machine to get, but then decided to answer it because it was a Miami area code.

"Hello?" She answered, still unsure if she made the right decision of answering the call. She decided she was right to answer though when she heard the first words out of the callers mouth.

"This is Austin's mom, Mimi. Is this Ally?" The voice on the other line said. Her voice was melodic, but seemed to be distant, sad, broken.

"This is her." Ally answered, already fearing the worst. She felt a feeling of sadness, of aprehention in the pit of her chest. His mom had never called her before, and she didn't imagine she would have to, unless if something bad happened to Austin of course.

"It's about Austin," Her mom said. She heard hear a sob of a man in the background. Her heart immediately shattered. "H, He got in an a, accident. He's uh, um," Suddenly, all she heard were sobs from a man, from Mimi, and from herself. Mimi didn't have to finish her sentence. Ally knew what was coming,

"F, funeral. M, m, monday. Th, th, ree." She croaked out. Ally sobbed more and threw her phone across the room. She heard it shatter and fall to the ground, which only made her sob more.

At one point, she was crying because she wanted Austin to leave her alone. Now, she was crying because all she wanted was for Austin to come back.

oOo

"Austin, well, he was my best friend. He is my best friend. He always will be. In fact, near the end, I started to kind of wish we were more than that. But, I guess deep down, we always were a little more than best friends." Ally was already crying, getting close to sobs. She held them back only to finish the little speech she had prepared in his honor.

"Austin was an amazing guy. He was always willing to help his friends first, even though it meant pushing aside his dream for a little. I remember one time at Trish's quincenera, he gave up the chance to sing in front of what we thought was a night club owner just to dance with me. Austin also was ambitious. All he wanted to do with his life was to be a famous singer, and he could've had it. He had all the qualities. The looks, the personality, the ambition. He was right on track.

"I'm really going to miss Austin. Not the Austin he had been acting like recently, always drunk and nasty. No, I'll miss the Austin that is my best friend. The Austin that would drop everything for me, the Austin that only wanted to write and sing and be with his friends, the Austin that told me how amazing I was at least once a day. That is the Austin I knew and loved.

"I wish I had gotten the chance to tell him how great he was, but I guess you'll never know how much you love something until it's gone."

**Disclaimer: I only own the lyrics and the plot. Thanks for reading. Please review. **


End file.
